The Vitality Roses are putting their Commonwealth Games disappointment behind them, and looking forwards to the Netball World Cup in 2023. Sky Sports reports that the Roses have secured their place in the World Cup, despite slipping down to fourth in the world rankings after their defeat to New Zealand in the bronze medal match.
England’s head coach Jess Thirlby said that despite missing out on a medal, there would be no major changes to the squad for next year. She told Sky Sports: “The margins now between second, third, fourth are so slim that you’ll get punished.”
She added: “Do I think there were moments in games where weren’t at our best? Absolutely, because there were moments with a little bit of vulnerability and we weren’t quite as clinical as we needed to be when we won ball, which was hard to find against the better teams.”
“I would be reluctant to move straight into that space of, we could have been better… what if some of what we did was our best on the day? Yes, there are areas I already see that we will want to look back on and better ourselves performance wise and think about how we might go about that.”
The World Cup campaign kicks off in October this year, when the Roses will play the Uganda She Cranes in a three match test series in London and Nottingham. After that, England will head out to Australia to play the Australian Diamonds in another three match test series.
Overall, 16 teams will play off for places in the semi-finals at various venues throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The top four teams will then play for medals places in Cape Town, South Africa in July and August 2023.
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